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This Week in Startups

Startup Valuations, Biotech’s Crunch & AI’s Massive TAM | E2147

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s show:


It’s another blockbuster panel of insiders, as Alex sits down with Astasia Myers from Felicis, Matt Turck from First Mark Capital, and D.A. Wallach of Time BioVentures. AI is reshaping early-stage investing, with startups raising record-setting rounds adn chasing $100B+ markets. Meanwhile, biotech faces a “Great Depression” as public markets stay shut, putting added pressure on private capital. In healthcare, AI-powered virtual doctors promise to bring world-class medical advice to everyone, while fertility tech could revolutionize IVF by automating embryo handling and slashing costs. Hear our VC experts exclusive thoughts on these trends and much more!

Timestamps:

(2:21) The post-Q2 landscape and everyone’s immediate reactions

(05:00) Why biotech is in a “Great Depression,” even for AI companies!

(9:36) CLA - Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://claconnect.com/tech(12:14) Overpriced vs. high-performing: Do high prices ALWAYS mean low expected returns and vice versa?

(14:50) Mega markets: how AI is different from past software shifts(18:58) Everyone’s companies are CRUSHING IT: why genAI has crazy tailwinds right now

(20:33) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST(21:46) Product-market fit and revenue durability in AI(24:29) Marketing and community development for early stage founders(25:14) AI advancements in humor, avatars, and healthcare(29:30) Public - Take your investing to the next level with Public. Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn 4.1% APY on your cash—with no fees or minimums. Start now at public.com/twist.(30:45) Healthcare innovation and AI foundation models(35:37) AI differentiation, OpenAI valuation, and infrastructure companies(43:08) User experience in LLMs and AI inference costs(51:21) AI healthcare applications and founding team trends(56:28) Hiring trends, burn rates, and outsourcing in biotech(1:01:51) Government investment in biotech and the European AI ecosystem(1:06:43) Academic founders and the Felicis Fellows program(1:09:10) Recent exits and the outlook for the upcoming quarters(1:12:27) Innovations in fertility treatments and prenatal testing(1:15:51) Summary of bullish trends and future outlook(1:16:14) Closing remarks and future check-in plans


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Thank you to our partners:

(9:36) CLA - Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://claconnect.com/tech

(20:33) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST

(29:30) Public - Take your investing to the next level with Public. Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn 4.1% APY on your cash—with no fees or minimums. Start now at public.com/twist


Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I can't overstate how transformational it's going to be to give high-quality gold-standard medical

0:07.3

knowledge to every person on the planet. I mean, we are really going to put the world's

0:12.5

greatest doctor at the fingertips of every single person on Earth. And this is, I think,

0:19.2

in some ways, the biggest thing that has ever happened to

0:21.5

medicine. This week in startups is brought to you by CLA. Innovation takes balance. CLA's CPAs,

0:31.2

consultants and wealth advisors can help you get from startup to where you want to end up. Get

0:36.8

started now at cLA connect.com

0:40.0

slash tech. Century. Your team should be focused on shipping features, not chasing down

0:47.3

bugs. New users get three months free of the team plan, which covers 150,000 errors. Go to century.io slash twist and use the code twist.

0:59.0

And public. You take investing seriously. Public does too. Build a multi-asset portfolio and

1:06.3

earn an industry leading 4.1% APY on your cash with no fees or minimums.

1:13.7

Learn more at public.com slash twist.

1:16.6

Hello and welcome back to Twist.

1:19.0

This is Alex and today we have something special for you.

1:21.9

We have just closed the books on Q2 and just opened a new chapter in the third quarter.

1:26.6

So it's the perfect time to sit down

1:28.0

with some of the smartest investors out there in the world to get the download on what they're

1:31.9

seeing, what's going on, and how they are placing bets or investments if you want as we dig into

1:36.4

the new quarter. Joining me today are Astasia Myers, a general partner at Felisus. She invests

1:42.0

pre-seed through Series A with themes including AI Infra, developer tools, enterprise software,

1:47.1

cybersecurity, and my favorite, open source. Estancia, hi.

1:50.6

Hi there. And then we have Matt Turk, a partner at First Mark.

...

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